October 2 2017
Slovenia has launched an investigation into allegations that its biggest state-owned bank laundered nearly €1 billion (US$ 1.17 billion) from Iran between 2008 and 2010, Euractiv reported Monday. The centre-right Slovenian Democratic Party, SDS, claims that Iran has used Slovenian laundered money to buy materials needed to build atomic and chemical weapon components, pay the agents who executed the purchases, and infiltrate Iranian spies in nuclear, security and defence institutions in the EU and the US.
The Bank of Slovenia ordered a ban to the transactions in December 2010, which NLB took nine days to implement. This gave Farrokhzadeh, who was on Interpol’s most wanted list at the time, enough days to move his operations to Russian banks, according to Euractiv.